I got home from Steemfest safely, but got sick with a flu the very next day.
As I finally feel better, I'd like to post my review.
First of all: @roelandp has done it again !
The whole event was very well organized, the locations were probably the best in Lisbon and the food was excellent.
Last year's Steemfest was smaller and the events were less spread out across the city.
To me, this resulted in a less familiar atmosphere.
Additionally, I already knew a bunch of people - I guess it was just less exciting.
Before going, I had very mixed feelings about the future of Steem.
There had been little to no communication from Steemit Inc. about the 2017 roadmap, the progress around communities, vote buying etc.
On the first night I met a newly employed developer from Steemit Inc. and he managed to clear up most of my issues;
Apparently Steemit Inc. is working on most of the things I care about.
After completely failing to get my points across the next day, when @andrarchy asked me about my views on the development of Steem, I decided to let those things rest, just enjoy myself and focus on meeting new people.
(sorry @andrarchy)
Some Personal Progress
I kept introducing myself as a regular/ blogger-type user.
After a few words about me running some services for Steem and a witness node, most people ended up calling me a developer.
Compared to some people here I'm a joke as a dev.
Nonetheless I will spend more time coding and learning so that maybe one day I can introduce myself as a dev with some actual products.
I guess I got one year till next Steemfest - Let's see what I can accomplish ...
The Talks
There were many talks and presentations during Steemfest.
Some were brilliant and insightful ... with some I couldn't disagree more.
The @cervantes talk was pretty special to me.
I haven't been directly involved with the work of @cervantes, but I watched their progress from the sidelines.
Having been around since they started their project and the witness, I couldn't help looking back at my own achievements - especially as I support the german language community.
They have achieved much more than my friends and I did.
Of course: the german community developed differently, but there is no excuse for us not to have representatives like @cervantes.
While I would have done many things differently, I can look at their progress with nothing but respect.
Another eye-opening talk was the interview with @ned.
I can appreciate how well he handled the questions and as entertaining as the interview was, there are still some important problems around the platform that he seems completely oblivious towards.
Right before Steemfest, steemit.com had massive problems and was at times completely unusable.
As I write this, the preview of my text will show me a different layout than what the post will actually look like once I post.
For over a year my transactions will appear twice in my wallet history.
For over a year notifications are broken.
The only library that I use lacks documentation and at this point it isn't possible to install it on any stock Linux.
The list goes on and I'm sure every user has one or two things that should be an easy fix, but hasn't been addressed by Steemit Inc. at all.
I still think their priorities are mixed up and communication seems to be the biggest issue.
I also absolutely don't understand how buying votes is an 'interesting phenomenon' ...
The economical implications are obvious.
It will not increase the value of STEEM.
Huge Potential
I still think STEEM has a huge potential.
It's a blockchain that has an actual use case and is being used.
It has established itself as a gateway to crypto for the average internet user.
The Market Capitalization of ETH is more than 100 x as much as STEEM, while ETH is still merely a speculation on a future application of the technology.
In fact, nothing really works on ETH just yet, while STEEM has been working well for 18 months +.
I think even with SMTs we will only use a fraction of what should be possible with this technology.
At this point we just have to trust Steemit Inc. to make the right decisions and since everybody has different visions of what this space could become, some people will end up disappointed.
In many ways I feel like a co-creator of this community but at the same time I feel pretty helpless and frustrated with what Steemit Inc. is doing and how little influence the community really has.
I can only hope this will change over time and that STEEM can live up to its potential.
Conclusions
Steemfest 2.0 was fun.
I met a bunch of friendly, inspiring people.
I feel more motivated than ever to be creative on this blockchain, to learn more and work harder. This isn't a quick way to become rich, but a great opportunity to meet enthusiastic people and create something new.
Coming back home and seeing some new witnesses in the top 20 while I'm slowly but surely dropping down in rank gave me more motivation than ever to involve myself more.
As a sidenote:
I will either bring a camera to next Steemfest or at least a smartphone with a decent camera.
This is the only presentable picture of Lisbon that I took.
I thought the green letters saying 'HOTEL BOT' were hilarious at the time ...
To all the people I met during Steemfest:
It was nice meeting you. If I don't already follow you on STEEM, please let me know.
If you have any projects, which I could support, please let me know.
And lastly, if you have a spare witness vote, consider voting for my witness @felixxx here:
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Thank you felixxx for posting your eye witness review of Steemfest.2.
Sounds like it was well worth your time.
Sorry to hear you were poorly afterward...do hope you are on the mend now.
Lets hope Steemit has more pluses than minuses as there is sure to be competition around the corner.
All the best to you. Cheers.
Thank you @felixxx for this unagitated, down to earth view to the community meet up called steemfest. You are the witness of my choice and I know, you make the job. Sorry, I can give only one witness voice to you, even when I have 27 witness–voices left.
I hope that steemit can start to listen to it's users a little more too. All the action is concentrated with a few. The little guys really have to pull together and make tight nit communities, basically, minnows have to create thier own "villages." of supporters/followers and they all just feed into one anothers "village". But it gets stressful because its just a poor village most of the time and we wish the city folk would stop by every now and again to buy something from the local venders so that we all might feed eachother a little better at night.
As they say... it takes a village.
Really awesome meeting you @felixxx. Looking forward to seeing the projects you have in store... maybe a ‘HotelBot’ to curate luxury hotel travel blog posts hahaha. Nonetheless I’ll definitely see you at 3.0!
FYI "flue" should be without a "e". Hope you get better soon.
thanks.
I'm also better now :)
you're welcome
Man!! Thanks a lot for your words, they mean a lot specially when they come from a very honest guy like you. I agree about the excitement, it was more exciting last year with all the new faces but I´m looking forward for the next steemfest :)
Yeah ... I felt like it needed to be said, especially after our disagreement :)
Thanks for your words man. And thanks also for your support. The bridge between our two communities is built, and we WILL keep cooperating making the international communities stronger.
I was surprised not to hear a bit more about some of the problems that have been going on with steemit...but Im so new to the platform, I just wanted to have some fun and make friends really. I hope some of these issues get resolved. One thing seems clear, there is a tonne of exciting developments happening on the Steem blockchain with masses of potential. This is going to be a HUGE and TELLING year for steemit especially. Fingers crossed it can keep up with demand and stay relevant.
Hi Felix,
Erst mal gute Besserung!
Und danke für die ehrlichen Worte... scheint echt ein "german thing" zu sein auch mal Klartext zu reden...ohne dass man sich deswegen gleich als "Abtrünniger" einordnen müsste. Da ich aus twinners post ähnliche Töne vernommen habe, und sie auch von Verantwortlichen wahrgenommen wurden (siehe Kommentare in seinem Post)... hege ich die Hoffnung das eure Stimmen einen progressiven Beitrag zu künftigen Verbesserungen leisten können. Ohne ehrliche kritische Beiträge würde ich mein Vertrauen bereits verloren haben... aber noch ist nicht aller Tage Abend!
Ich glaube sich mit echten Personen zu treffen auf einem Event, das hauptsächlich mit steem bezahlt wurde hat mein Vertrauen wieder etwas aufleben lassen.
Magisches Internetgeld sollte man immer mit allerhand Skepsis betrachten.
Die Grundidee dass man durch guten Content teilhaben kann an der Ausschüttung dieses "magischen Internetgeldes" ist halt sehr verheissungsvoll und reizvoll... das verführt zu Hoffnung. .. mich auf jeden Fall!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
This sounded really fun! I'm glad the steemit community has more ways to connect other than via internet! :D
I just posted about the introduction in steemit, I hope you can see and up vote my post thanks :)
so nice..Really owesom fest..
if you please upvote i have,done some rules of steemit
Posted a beautiful and useful post. Thank you
It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save one's head.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Thank you! very interesting practical overview
hi bro...
I am new member for steemit... so follow and up votes. pls
Good post my friends
Success always for you
Cool
Thank you for this article that gives us a little inside of you of what was going on last week and also about your personal opinion about the future of this platform here
I have only been here for five weeks, but I also noticed some differences between the international and the German community. It's very interesting to use two different languages to create my post, and to reach two quite different audiences
Thank you for all your work in the background, I haven't dick to much into the whole witness think, I reckon I really need to do this from now.
Also noch einmal ein großes Dankeschön für deine Arbeit hier, und ich werde deinem Account jetzt mal folgen, und weiterhin up to Date zu bleiben
Viele Grüße aus Japan und bis bald
@felixxx
great guy...very interesting post... steemfest was a huge success and am glad you guys made it happen big time... you truly my witness sir... keep it up and with you all the best ahead...
Lieber @felixxx,
danke für deinen Bericht!
Und gute Besserung!
at least you're humble enough to better yourself
good luck and I hope you get to top 20 when the time comes
at least we know how dedicated you are and that you're not just doing this to fill your pocket
So glad you have recovered after the steemfest. It is nice to have an your take on the festivities. I imagine that you too are working diligently to learn the developers coding process , especially as quickly as things are changing. You bring up some excellent points about the future of steemit. We will see where it goes and hope the correct decisions are made on the behalf of all. Thanks for your post.
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STOPIt was great meeting and chatting with you, didn't get a chance to buy you a beer. Maybe next time!
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STOPHallöchen, der versprochene Witness vote ist abgegeben ;)
Danke :)
Why are you downvoting me???!!!!!?????
I downvoted you for spamming comments.
How is running !OriginalWorks spam??? Isn't that counter intuitive???
You are spamming the same comment under a bunch of posts.
Note: I haven't taken any rewards from you.
A greeting, a plagiarize check and a nice Gif... So you mean I used professional techniques to catch attention, draw the attention to the wonderful works of @OriginalWorks (unless you are disrespecting the account and encouraging plagarism), and providing joyful entertainment?
I'm curious why I get follow backs from them? Is it because people enjoy seeing their quality posts seen by others, validated, awarded for originality, and supported for future posts?
Nah I just spam, right?
Yeah: it's just spam.
THEN IT IS SPAM THAT THE FOLLOWING ACCOUNTS APPROVE OF:
When you decide FOR OTHERS whether or not THEY are afforded the right to decide between spam and meeting new people, YOU ARE THE ONE WRONG
Many of THOSE PEOPLE ABOVE have hidden because your absurdism. Admit it, you thought you found a spam account when you actually found someone that works hard on the grind 24/7 reading posts, curating posts, supporting people.
SMH You should be ashamed of yourself. This is the end of the conversation!